Approximately three hours before jihadists attacked the ‘Draw Muhammad’ contest in Garland, Texas on Sunday, the FBI sent notice to Garland police, which included a photo, warning that shooter Elton Simpson was “interested in the event,” FBI director James Comey stated.
Comey told reporters that the FBI had no reason to believe that Simpson intended to attack the event.
Hmmm, so they saw fit to notify police that known Muslim that was going to attend an event that completely violates Islamic law and calls for execution of those that commit such ‘atrocities’ against their prophet, but they didn’t have reason to believe he would attack?
The FBI originally investigated Simpson for allegedly planning to join a terror group in Africa five years ago. That case ended last year, when Simpson was convicted of lying to agents about his plans. He faced three years of probation. The FBI saw no signs that Simpson was a threat, Comey said.
But the FBI reopened its investigation of Simpson in March, when he made statements on social media indicating a renewed interest in jihad, this time in connection with ISIS, Comey said.’
Two weeks before the Garland event, which invited artists to draw illustrations of Muhammad, the FBI and Homeland Security warned law enforcement agencies across the country that it was at risk of being targeted by Islamic extremists. The advisory noted that supporters of ISIS and other terror groups had posted links to the contest on Twitter.
Simpson was reading those posts, and communicated with an American in Somalia who’d called for attacking the event, investigators have said.
The FBI then developed information that Simpson might be interested in traveling to Garland, Comey said.
The Sunday bulletin followed.
According to Comey, the Texas plot is a dramatic example of the changing nature of the terror threats.
“Only a few years ago,” Comey said, “If someone wanted jihadist propaganda, they would have to go find it on the Internet. So we focused on the places they’d go.”
Now he says the ISIS message is being pushed into the pockets of people who are interested in it through social media.
Source: nbcnews.com
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